An 82-year-old woman in Texas fought hard for the ability to vote in an election for the very first time — right before she died.
As the New York Post reports, the Grand Prairie woman cast her ballot early, making her way to the polls on Thursday.
On Monday, she was dead from what her family described to the Washington Post as a grave illness.
Son-in-law Jeff Griffith said she had developed a new outlook on voting in recent years after spending most of her life avoiding politics.
He said she had made up her mind to register and vote in the 2018 midterm elections prior to contracting sepsis and pneumonia.
“She was asking, ‘Isn’t there some way I can vote? Don’t they let people vote from the hospital?’ It was really important to her,” Griffith said.
In response to her first-ever vote, loved ones said she “danced a little jig” before loudly declaring that she had taken the important civic step.
Poll workers accommodated Phillips at the polling place a short distance from her home, where she had been living under hospice care.
After bringing her ballot to the car for her to complete it, those working at the polling station joined in a round of applause for the woman’s achievement.
Video of the elderly woman smiling as she held her voter sticker has since spread widely via social media.
As for her decisions, Phillips’ son in law said she wasn’t shy about how she voted.
He said she “wanted to drain the swamp” and “voted straight-ticket Republican.”
The effort took its toll the following day, according to Griffith.
Though she was unable to get out of bed or take part in some of her morning rituals, she told her family on Friday that she was glad she voted.
“It was one of the last coherent things she said to us,” Griffith added.
He said Phillips was surrounded by family when she died early Monday morning.
[Featured image: Gracie Lou Phillips, screenshot]